Transplant patients embody patience

Michelle Christenson/Caller-times
Former Freer police officer Julian Peña stands outside the Freer Police Department. Peña retired from the force after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2000. He currently awaits news of a donor heart.

CORPUS CHRISTI - U.S. Highway 77 to U.S. Highway 59, right on State Highway 6, to Interstate 45 and a left into the parking lot at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

It's the same route, as many as four times a month. Seventy dollars for gas each trip, plus the time off from work his daughter must take to drive him.

"I just got to take it day by day," said Peña, who since May has waited for the phone to ring with good news on the other end. "I wake up in the mornings, and I'm still alive. I just wish I could get the transplant as soon as I could. I don't want to be a burden to my family."

Peña is among 7,401 potential organ transplant recipients in Texas waiting for such a call. Though there is no local database of how many people in the Coastal Bend are on the transplant list, local hospital representatives say there is a need for more organ donors and for an adult transplant center in or near Corpus Christi.

The closest transplant centers are in San Antonio, Houston, Galveston and Dallas, and the cost of travel takes an additional toll on patients, said Pam Silvestri, Southwest Transplant Alliance spokeswoman.

Driscoll Children's Hospital is the only area facility approved to perform transplants -- but only kidney transplants on patients 22 and younger.

Medicare and the United Network for Organ Sharing approved Driscoll in September, and nine transplants have been performed since February. The kidney center at Driscoll currently has about 10 patients on dialysis awaiting transplants, which is average. The facility has had as many as 15 to 20 patients on dialysis, which is considered a high amount for the community's size, and "these numbers aren't going to get smaller," said transplant surgeon Stephen Almond. Dialysis is a life-saving treatment that performs functions of the kidney.

Almond, who came from a Chicago hospital to help start Driscoll's transplant program, said people throughout South Texas especially are at risk for kidney failure because of the increased presence of diabetes and high blood pressure. Also, he said, not many are educated about organ donation.

"They don't ask and not a lot tell," Almond said. "There's a lot of benefit in transplantation, and the opportunity is there. But it's how they're going to get that information -- that's the question."

Paul Treviño, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Christus Spohn Health System, said administrators and the board of directors see a need for an adult kidney transplant center and are evaluating whether Spohn's three Corpus Christi hospitals should establish one.

"We're getting feedback and input. We want to make sure we have the organizational capacity to do it and do it well," he said. "We want broad-based support from the community and from the medical staff."

Treviño said a decision to advance the project could be made by the end of the year. He said he did not know the cost of creating a center.

Meanwhile, area patients face high costs and inconvenience to travel for their treatment (the surgery alone can run $200,000). Silvestri knows patients who travel monthly to the hospital where their transplant will take place for blood work, X-rays and other tests.

Patients such as Julian Peña, a former Freer police officer.

Peña hadn't seen a doctor in decades when he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2000. Doctors told the now-54-year-old he had the heart of a 90-year-old and that he'd have to quit the force.

"I really didn't want to quit what I was doing -- I enjoyed my job," he said. "I had seldom missed work for anything."

But he did leave the job and now his name is on the heart transplant list. He will continue to wait if people don't register to donate -- a problem some blame on myths associated with donation.

Many people aren't educated about the subject, said Janice Richey, Southwest Transplant Alliance regional client services coordinator. Other reasons include religion and culture.

Bishop Edmond Carmody said organ donation after death is noble and encouraged in the Catholic faith. Rabbi Ken Roseman of Congregation Beth Israel said that most Jewish authorities believe donation is acceptable if it's to save or enhance a life.

"For example, if somebody's giving their eyesight with the gift of corneas, most authorities say it's perfectly permissible," Roseman said.

Next to religious beliefs, the biggest concern is the idea that donors don't receive the same quality of care if they are in an accident or brain dead, Silvestri said.

"This is a big myth -- it's so pervasive," she said. "People think, 'If I sign a donor card, the people at the hospital won't try to save my life.' And it's the complete opposite. They'll do anything in their power to save you. It's only when those efforts have failed that they call us. If they call us, it means there's no hope."

Some donors are rejected because their own health. For example, a body mass index greater than 30 usually disqualifies a person from donating organs such as the stomach, liver or pancreas because of potential existing damage from complications linked to obesity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks Texas No. 10 in the nation with the highest percentage of residents obese and/or overweight. Sixty-four percent of Texas adults are either overweight or obese, the center says, and 28 percent of Texas high school students are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.

For those willing and able to donate, the need is great. Every 15 minutes, another person joins the waiting list for a heart, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas or intestines. Almost 97,000 are on that list nationwide, and other lists exist for tissue, bone and corneas.

The organ transplant list is divided by regions. Children usually receive priority. No average wait time is calculated.

"I've seen some people wait in excess of 10 years, and some receive an organ the same day they're listed. It's about who dies and when, and if it's a match for you," Silvestri said.

Peña's oldest daughter, Debbie, never considered donation until her father became sick. She now is on a donor list.

"I never realized how many people can be saved by organ donation," she said. "I guess it's different when it hits home. We're in dire need of that heart -- it makes you think."